Google blocked more bad ads than ever in 2015, but they still keep coming

When Google tells us it blocked 780 million bad ads last year, is that a sign that things are getting better?

In one way it is, as the 49 percent increase in bad ads blocked outpaced Google's overall advertising growth, indicating that the company has been blocking a greater number of bad ads as a percentage of the whole. Clicks on its ads grew at a slightly more leisurely pace, rising 23 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter last year, the most recent for which figures are available.

But we don't know how many bad ads slipped past the 1,000+ Google employees charged with detecting them, nor how many bad advertisers simply moved to other advertising networks with less sophisticated detection systems or fewer qualms.